Weissensee Castle/Runneburg

“Weissensee lies in the middle of Thuringia. From this town it is as far east to the Saale / as it is west to the Werra / also south to the Thuringian Forest / and north to the Harz mountains.” In the 12th century the Thuringian landgraves had already been aware of this strategic position described by the chronicler Olearius in 1704. For Weissensee, situated in a flat countryside of meadows and lakes, marks roughly the middle of the distance between the landgravian castles Wartburg and Neuenburg (today Sachsen-Anhalt). At that time the construction of a castle near the “white lake” seemed unavoidable. Even if legend has it that Landgravine Jutta wished the castle merely to be a kind of intermediate stop on her journeys, the castle erected around 1170 nonetheless conveys – in spite of all later alterations – the impression of a massive fortification. It is verified that before he could build this castle Landgrave Ludwig II had to occupy foreign territory first.

Different from the evaluation 100 years ago Weissensee Castle ranks today among the largest Romanesque castle complexes in Germany. Building archaeology, exposures inside the buildings as well as excavations on the castle grounds and outside have revealed that there this no other castle where as much Romanesque architecture has survived at the original site as at Runneburg Castle, the grounds of which cover 1.5 hectares surrounded by an elliptic enclosing wall. Through the castle gate from the 13th century and past buildings from a later period the path leads towards the most important architectural elements from the high Middle Ages at this site, the residential apartments and their tower.

Die Höhepunkte der mittelalterlichen Baukunst sind der Palas und der dazugehörige fünfgeschossige Palas-Turm. Beide Bauten bildeten seit jeher eine Einheit, sie wurden gemeinsam konzipiert und im ausgehenden 12. Jahrhundert fertiggestellt. Im Palas finden sich bemerkenswerte Zeugnisse mittelalterlicher Steinmetzkunst, darunter eine sogenannten Astsäule mit einem Kapitell, bestehend aus Weinranken. Seit 1996 wird die Anlage von der Stiftung Thüringer Schlösser und Gärten aufwendig gesichert und saniert. Vor allem die Sanierung des Palas-Turms stellte eine besondere Herausforderung dar, da der Turm äußerst instabil war und ein großer Teil des maroden Mauerwerks im unteren Turmschaft ausgetauscht werden musste.